


Kylo Makes Rey Smile

by how_do_i_turn_this_thing_off



Category: Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: F/M, One Shot, Requests, Reylo - Freeform, Tumblr, asks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-10
Updated: 2019-10-10
Packaged: 2020-11-28 21:01:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20972999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/how_do_i_turn_this_thing_off/pseuds/how_do_i_turn_this_thing_off
Summary: As the title suggests, from this suggestion on tumblr:Fic prompt: Kylo making Rey smile





	Kylo Makes Rey Smile

Rey sat in the rain, eyes closed, just trying to breathe. She couldn’t tell if she felt the Force more or less now, when she was utterly exhausted. Maybe she was separate from it entirely, an observer instead of a conscious actor, letting it flow around her but not trying to interact with it within her.

She looked down at her hands where water was pooling over her fresh burns. How many more times could she try and fail to make a lightsaber crystal before giving up? It had been weeks, weeks since she’d started, and now she was just as far from her goal as she had been with nothing but pain and frustration and this odd nothingness inside of her to show it.

The sound around her changed and she felt Ben in the Force but did nothing, said nothing, only stared out over the endless water and waited to see what he wanted.

“You’re sitting in the rain,” he finally observed, voice expressionless. “Don’t tell me the Rebellion’s found itself another water planet to hide away on.”

The was exactly what it had done, as a matter of fact, but the last thing she was going to do was give him the satisfaction. “Don’t you have innocent men, women, and children to torture somewhere?” she asked.

“You wound me. Where has this come from?” he asked, moving into her range of vision and sitting wherever he was, regarding her carefully. “I’ve never known you to be quite so… unbalanced.”

“I’m not unbalanced. I’m not anything.”

“Someone try to have you for dinner?” he asked, looking pointedly at her burns.

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Well we’re going to have to talk about something, unless you’ve learned how to shut this off.”

“I haven’t, but I should try,” she said, knowing she was being unfair but somehow unable to stop herself. “There must be a way to stop you.”

“Is that what you want, desert girl?”

“Don’t call me that.”

“Why?”

“Just don’t, okay?” she snapped, shooting him a hard look. “My name is Rey.” He stayed quiet, studying her, and she looked away again, closing her eyes, trying to make herself find that inner calm, that equilibrium that usually came so naturally to her. It didn’t work; she’d been drawing so hard, insistently, almost desperately on the Force that now when she tried to just do this she couldn’t seem to reach it at all.

“Rey,” Ben finally said after a long silence, accepting her request. “I can feel you struggling, in the Force. Are you hurt?”

“No.”

“And you’re not counting the burns covering every visible inch of skin? What have you been doing, practicing Force lightning?”

“That’s a dark technique,” she reminded him.

“Well maybe a dark technique is what you need right now. The light side requires so much self-denial, so much emptiness. It won’t give you what you want.”

“Please don’t, Ben,” she said, not looking at him. “I’m too tired for this today. I want to be alone.”

“I know,” he said, his voice a little quieter than before. “But we’re not alone, remember? You told me that.”

She stayed silent for a while, watching the waves. The cliff she sat on wasn’t very high; she could safely jump down to the beach and go for a swim, which she’d intended to do at first before she’d realized how wet she was going to get just by sitting up here. “That’s not fair,” she eventually told him.

“No, but it’s true. If you’re not hurt, get up,” he said firmly, standing himself.

“Ben…” she sighed.

“No ‘Ben’, get up,” he repeated. She sighed again but did as she was told, too tired to do otherwise, climbing to her feet. She wasn’t hurt, per se, but there were burns of varying sizes and stages of healing all over her body and the movement was agony. “Good,” Ben said. “Now, throw something at me.”

“Throw something at you?”

“Yes. Anything you can find, a rock, a branch, anything. Throw it as hard as you can.”

She stared at him in total confusion for a moment before shrugging and turning to look for a rock. It was going to go right through him anyway, so why not? She found one of a decent size, hefted it for a moment, then threw it at him. It sailed past his shoulder, clearing him by an easy foot.

“Pitiful,” he said unsympathetically. “Find another one.” She turned, looking around, as he asked, “Why don’t you like being called desert girl?”

“Because it’s not my name,” she said, finding a rock and taking more careful aim this time. It went through his stomach. He gestured for her to do it again.

“I’ve been calling you desert girl for months. I called you worst things before that, you didn’t mind then. Now throw it with the Force.”

“I did mind, I just didn’t say it,” she told him. She concentrated briefly and the next rock shot from her hand through his chest, the one after that through the exact same spot. She bent down to get more without him having to signal she should.

“But now you’re saying it?”

“Yeah, I guess I am.” Two more rocks, two more hits. She shot them a little harder this time. If he noticed he gave no sign that he cared.

“Why?”

“Because I want to, that’s why.”

“There has to be a reason, Rey. Are you lying to me?”

“I’m not lying! I just decided to.” Six rocks, six good hits, and she pushed them hard, slightly adjusting her technique. Something in her was uncoiling, rising like it had been asleep, something hot that made her feel jumpy, irritated. It didn’t help that every time she had to bend over to pick more rocks up she felt her burns stretching and splitting, a painful patchwork of complaints across her skin. She kept going.

“Tell me,” Ben ordered.

“There’s nothing to tell. Even if I wanted to I don’t have to, I don’t have to tell you anything! Why should I? I don’t have to give you reasons for you to use my name.”

“Tell me because it matters,” Ben insisted, stepping closer to her, ignoring the rocks she sent sailing towards his face. It was very, very aggravating that he didn’t even flinch, even if he wasn’t solid, and Rey could feel her temper starting to get the best of her. “You care, so it matters. Why?”

“Did it matter to you when I called you a monster?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because I was one. You made me say it. Now tell me.”

“No! I don’t want to, I don’t have to!” she said- well, shouted, really- sending rocks flying through him. “I’m not a little desert girl, I’m not just some scavenger, some Rebel scum!” She dropped the rock she’d just picked up, stepping closer to him. “I’m not nothing.”

“I know. I already told you I know that.”

“Then use my name,” she insisted. “That’s all, that’s all I ask. Use my name.”

“And that’s what you’re upset about?” he asked.

“I- I don’t know,” she huffed, looking away. There had been something she was upset about but somewhere along the line things had gotten confused. “No, I’m not, I just- just, just do it.”

“Fine. What are you upset about, Rey?”

“Just, things,” she said, waving a hand through the air as if that was going to help. She’d been shouting at him a moment before but now, out of nowhere, that raw anger she’d started to feel had turned into something else. Less dry rage and more frustration, more hurt, more disappointment in herself. A dangerous prickling in her eyes warned she might even be about to cry. “I don’t know, nothing’s gone right lately, and no matter how much I try I just can’t seem to get it. Any of it. I have people– people counting on me, you know? And, and I want to do this but I can’t. Every time I try it’s like– like I’m reaching for something that’s not there. Like whatever I try to do, that’s always the hardest thing I could have done. I just wish one thing, ONE THING, could be easy and good once in a while.”

“You’re frustrated,” he summed up, his dark eyes never leaving her though she wished they would, she wished he’d give her a little privacy with her voice full of unshed tears she was constantly having to fight back.

“Yes,” she admitted, looking away herself.

“You’re unbalanced.”

“I know.”

“So what do you want to do next?”

She looked up at him again. It was raining fairly hard; surely even if she did cry he wouldn’t be able to tell. “I don’t know,” she admitted.

“You have to do something,” he pointed out. When she said nothing he added, “You could start with getting out of the rain, for one thing.”

“I guess,” she sighed, turning and heading back towards the trees. A couple tears fell but Ben was behind her and she told herself he hadn’t been able to tell. The rest she swallowed back, taking deep breaths, reaching for her calm center again. It came more easily now, and she was glad to be seeking shelter with the crisis past. The water had felt good when she’d come out and found the storm steadily soaking the whole region, but at that time she’d been fresh from the furnace and so overheated it had been a little surprising that her skin didn’t smoke when the cool droplets first started hitting her. Now she was cooled down, both physically and mentally, and the water wasn’t so pleasant any more.

She found a plant with broad leaves that made for some dry space underneath it and crouched there, crossing her arms and watching the rain fall. Ren sat next to her, his eyes down, unfocused as if he was looking at something else. “Your thoughts are in a tangle, too,” Rey told him. “I can tell.”

“You can read my mind that easily?” he asked, not looking up.

“I don’t have to. It’s all over your face.”

“Things have gotten more complicated since the last time we saw each other. The First Order is a large and unwieldy beast, and since Snoke didn’t know he was going to die he didn’t make any preparations to pass it off to a successor. He probably thought he was never going to die. So there’s no protocol for a hand-off of power, no structure in place, no anything. I have to make up every step before I take it. It’s not so bad, just hard.”

“Sounds like you could use a little time in the rain.”

“I’m not sure it would be quite as useful, since I have no one to throw rocks at.”

“You could throw rocks at me,” she offered.

“I don’t want to throw rocks at you,” he said, glancing at her. “You look cold.”

“It’s not so bad. Just the breeze.”

“Here,” he said, moving so he was sitting right next to her and lifting his cape, wrapping it over her shoulders. It was warm, and dry, and even more surprisingly, solid.

“How did you do that?” Rey asked, looking at the cape then back at him.

“Oh, you know,” he mumbled, his hand sliding down her back and wrapping hesitantly, incredibly gently, around her waist. “That’s what all this power is really for, isn’t it? Throwing rocks, keeping dry.”

Rey relaxed a little, feeling the last of the trembly, tight urge to cry in her chest disappearing as his hand tightened on her. It was a nice feeling. She decided not to let him know she had a particularly troublesome burn there, hidden by her clothes. She had burns everywhere and besides, for just a little while, she could bear it. “I feel a lot better now,” she told him.

“You did well, with the rocks.”

“Thanks. I still don’t know what that was supposed to accomplish.”

“Just a way to let go of your anger,” he said, shrugging. “You felt it, didn’t you? The anger inside of you.”

“Yes,” she admitted. “I felt different than I usually do.”

“That’s the dark side,” he said, his hand tightening again as though he worried that with those words alone she would instantly push him away. “It’s the part of you that doesn’t mind frustration, or anger, or having feelings in general. It helps you make them into power.”

“Hm,” she said, glancing away, not sure how to feel about that. He’d made her tap into the dark side? And that’s what the dark side was? It hadn’t felt like what she’d seen on Ahch-To, or like what she’d sensed when she’d met Snoke. It hadn’t felt like anything she’d ever felt at all. “I didn’t know you could do things with the dark side other than hurt people,” she said.

Next to her Ben went still, and she looked up at him automatically, only registering what she’d said when she saw his face. “You think all I do is hurt people?” he asked.

“I don’t think you mean it to be like that,” she said, putting her hand over his as he tried to pull it away. “But I think that’s what usually happens.”

“That’s not what this is supposed to be about,” he said, looking out towards the rain he couldn’t see, sighing but leaving his hand where it was. “The First Order will bring stability to the galaxy. Once everyone’s living under a standardized, unified form of government–.”

“Stop,” Rey said with a sigh, turning towards him under his cloak, staying in the curve of his arm. “Please. I don’t want to do this again.”

“What do you want to do?” he asked, a little obvious frustration of his own coloring his voice.

“Just be here like this, with you. Just us, without anything else.”

He frowned a little, studying her, then reached out with his free hand, brushing the very, very tips of his fingers across her face. They felt a little cool but wonderful, and for that brief moment she was surrounded by him. “I’m glad it was you, you know,” he told her, leaving his hand where it was. “I know you think I’m not, but I am.”

“It was me what?” she asked.

“In the Force,” he said, his hand tracing it’s way past her jaw, to her neck, settling there, holding her. It should have felt threatening, or at the very least intimidating. It felt like a lot of things, but not that. “Snoke warned me you’d be coming. Well, not you, but someone. 'Light to meet it’, all of that. I didn’t know it was going to be an orphaned scavenger slave from Jakku– let me finish,” he protested when she tried to push him off, both hands tightening until she gave up. “I didn’t know it was going to be you,” he amended. “But I’m glad it was you. I’d rather it was you than anyone else in the galaxy.”

“What does that mean?”

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “But I know it’s true.” He eased the hand around her neck away, dropping it to his knee. “Do you feel okay now?”

“Yes,” she said, smiling up at him. Surprisingly she felt not just okay but really, really good. The calm peace inside her she’d been reaching for was within her again as strongly as it had ever been, flowing through her.

“I do too,” he said, in a way that suggested that surprised him. “And I didn’t even know I wasn’t.” 

He winked out of existence before she could process that, more abruptly than she’d been ready for, the heat of his cape and the pressure of his hand disappearing at the same time so that she felt suddenly cold and almost fell over. She’d been leaning into him and hadn’t even realized.

The day wasn’t done yet. Rey stood, stretching as much as she could under her leafy cover, looking out at the rain. It wasn’t far back to the furnace but it would still get her completely soaked and cold again. She was ready to try again, and probably to fail again, and then to try again after that. The next time she met Ben in person she wanted to be able to show him what she could do, how strong she’d become, so that he’d never think of her as an orphaned scavenger slave again.

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Another one that took me a while to write, but I’m pleased with how it turned out. It’s just a fluff scene but it was fun :) It was a little harder than the Rey makes Ben smile one because Rey’s such a smiley person anyway that I had to first think up a situation where she wouldn’t be. Thanks for the prompt!
> 
> More where this came from @ my tumblr:
> 
> https://how-do-i-turn-this-thing-off.tumblr.com/


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